Can Acupuncture Help With Shingles Pain

Acupuncture points can be needled to clear any heat and move the qi and thus reducing any pain and swelling there may be.

Can acupuncture help with shingles pain.

The treatment of post herpetic pain is an area which has been heavily researched in china as our factsheet. Shingles can be a terribly distressing condition whose after effects can persist for months or even years. How can acupuncture help. This ancient practice uses very thin needles to balance your qi.

The acupuncturist is able to determine which pattern of shingles the person has and use the precise acupuncture points to treat the underlying imbalance that allowed the virus to rear its ugly head in the first place. The treatment of shingles has historically been treated by acupuncture within the traditional chinese medicine tcm system for well over 1 000 years. A latent pathogen is a virus or other infection that lodges in the body. However shingles is caused by a virus which cannot be cured.

Acupuncture works for the treatment of shingles because it speeds up the resolution of the rash and reduces pain itching. July 25 2005 a new study offers insights into what helps and what does not help relieve long lasting shingles pain. Yes acupuncture can treat the pain associated with shingles as well as to help boost one s immune system. As you might imagine we have been asked about this many times over the years.

This new research confirms the efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of nerve pain related to the sequela of shingles. In chinese medicine shingles is viewed as a latent pathogen and external heat. Doctors call it postherpetic neuralgia or phn. People get it to ease or stop pain from any number of causes and it may help with shingles.

But where there is sufficient clinical experience for us to believe that where we can treat early in the presentation of the condition there may be some good possibility for reducing the severity of the outbreak. Acupuncture stimulates the body to produce an anti inflammatory response and switch off over active nerves which may give relief from shingles pain. In chinese medicine we know that shingles involves toxic heat internal wind and dampness lodged inside the body and acupuncture resolves these imbalances and helps restore the body to health. Acupuncture relieves pain due to shingles reduces the need for painkillers speeds the healing of herpes zoster lesions and reduces the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia phn.

Shingles is one of the conditions where the evidence is not yet sufficient to be conclusive as our factsheet shows. Patients who have come to me due to the pain associated with shingles were very satisfied with the reduction to elimination of pain.